Princess Phantasm
by CropsyManiac
Summary: Nightmares, strange occurrences, and the abduction of a young blood warrior bring Hime and her gang to a rebuilt Sasanaki Mortuary. One with a lot more marble halls and silver balls. Rated T for language and some violence. Riza/Hiro
1. Chapter 1

This is a work of fan fiction. Princess Resurrection and Phantasm are both properties of their respective owners.

Also, will probably revise some things (words, punctuation, flow) as I go along, but feel free to point them out anyways, since I'm sure it will make fixing them a bit easier.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1 -

...

_~haaahhhhhhhh_~  
A sharp breath slithers into his ears. The young blood warrior stirs slightly in his sleep, but does nothing more in reaction to the sound.  
'_It's probably my own breathing, nothing worth getting up for..._'

He shrugs off the sounds as he continues his rest; Flandre or Sawawa will most likely wake up him up early like they usually do, so he can't afford to let his sleeptime musings disturb his sleep.

_~haaahhhhhhhh_~  
There it is again. The second breath came rather quickly, a good deal faster than any breathing he has heard before. Once again trying to attribute the sounds to his body and mind, he relaxes and does his best to get some well-earned sleep.

_~haaahhhhhhhh_~  
The sound comes once again, the intervals between breaths becoming shorter with each occurence. More breathing sounds begin to echo through Hiro's mind; breathing of different speeds, volume, and pitch.

'_That's... that's not my breathing..._'  
As the chilling thought races through his mind, all the other sounds are suddenly silenced by a single, deep breath; one closer to his ears and more imposing than any of the sounds before it.  
Hiro's eyes shoot open as he looks straight upward.

Most times when he wakes up before morning, his vision is greeted with the familiar sight of his stone tile ceiling being slightly illuminated by the lights from his alarm clock. What he now sees in its place is a pitch black sky, the moon towering above his sight.  
Standing right above his head is a tall, lanky man clad in a black suit. His face is covered with the lines and wrinkles of an elderly man, and what's left of his white hair is combed back around his bald scalp,

Hiro opens his mouth, attempting to stammer out one of the thousands of questions racing through his mind, when the figure suddenly extends both of his arms out from his sides. As if on cue, dozens of rotting arms sprout from beneath the earth and clutch onto the blood warrior's body before he can even mutter a syllable.

'_UWAHHHHH!_'  
With a shout, Hiro shoots upwards in his bed. He looks around him; his walls, ceiling, and belongings are all in their usual spot, at least from what he can see in the dark. He sighs as he wipes cold sweat from his forehead and gets out from under the sheets.

'_I think I need some water..'_  
He yawns, wiping the sleep from his eyes as he flips on his pocketlight and opens the door.

"WUH!" Hiro jumps back a step as he opens the door to a person standing there. Fortunately for him, the person standing in his doorway turns out to be none other than Riza.

"Yo Hiro, you alright? I heard you shouting!"  
"Y-yeah, I'm fine... Just a nightmare.."

A slight, rather relieved smile comes over her face. However, it quickly transforms into an amused, mocking expression before Hiro can even notice.

"Aww~, how scary. You want me to check under the bed for monsters?"

"No, I'll be alright. I just need to get some water."

Riza frowns with disappointment. 'Making fun' of this kid isn't much fun at all.  
'_Gah, ran my ass over here for nothing. What a waste of time..._'

She turns around to return to her night shift as Hiro starts to step in the direction of the kitchen.

"Oh, and Riza.."

"Huh?"

"Um.. Thanks for looking out for me."  
He flashes a nervous smile, and then quickly turns the corner and continues on his way to the kitchen.

She smiles to herself slightly, pausing for a moment before continuing her walk down the hall.  
_'But at least he's alright.._'

Riza sighs. She isn't sure what keeps her running to that moron at every sign of danger as of late, but every time she hears him screaming, she finds herself rushing to help. It couldn't possibly..

~CRASH!~  
Her train of thought is interrupted by the sound of smashing glass and screaming.

'Hiro..? Shit!'

Without as much as another word, she rushes in the direction of the kitchen.

~clickclickclick*

"What the hell?"  
The door won't open! And on top of that, she can hear growling and snarling noises creeping from directly underneath the door,

"Oh, I see what's up.. You think ya can keep me out, huh?"

She yells angrily over the door as her forearms contort into their lycanthropic counterparts. With a single swing of her arm, the door shatters into pieces.

"Alright you bast-... the hell?"

Orange liquid and the corpses of three extremely short hooded creatures were scattered about the room, pieces of the kitchen door protruding from their bodies. She sure as hell didn't remember any of these things being a part of the monster kingdom.  
More importantly, Hiro is nowhere to be found, and the window is shattered. She rushes up to the window and looks out into the night, but she can't see the boy or his captors anywhere.

"Damnit, Hiro... You moron..."  
-End of Chapter 1-


	2. Chapter 2

A/N:  
If you read the previous chapter before a day or so ago, you should check it again before reading this one, since I extended it a bit.

Chapter 2 -

"What the hell! They were right here!"  
Riza shouts, her voice teeming with anger and confusion. She had ran to get Hime and Reiri to alert them of what had just happened, and somehow the corpses of the dwarf-like beings had disappeared in her brief absence. The only remaining evidence of their existence is the shattered window and the orange liquid splattered all over the kitchen.

"Oh my, such a mess. Not a far cry from the kind of mess I'd expect you to make, dog."

Riza clenches her fist as Reiri spouts another one of her usual insults at her. Usually she doesn't let that vampire skank's crap get to her all that much, but given the current situation, she's pretty freakin' pissed.

"**How can you be such a careless bitch at a time like this? Hiro's missing, there's some weird-ass dwarf things running around, and-**"

"Riza, Reiri. Be quiet, both of you."  
Riza's outburst is cut short as Hime's stern, but soft voice interrupts her. The quarelling duo falls silent as the princess observes the scene in front of her; the shattered door pieces and broken glass matches up with the events her wolf-blooded subordinate had described, that was simple enough. Taking a closer look at the window, however, she notices traces of Hiro's blood trickling along the shards of glass still embedded in the window frame, indicating that her blood warrior had cut himself as he was dragged out into the night. However, there is one thing she cannot quite put her finger on..

"Flandre."

"Huga?"

"Obtain a sample of that liquid."

"Hugahuga."  
The child-like android walks up to a puddle of the viscose orange liquid and dips her finger into it; her large eyes light up with code and data as she slips the fingerful of liquid into her mouth, numbers and german text scrolling downwards within her eyes until it comes to a sudden stop.

"Huga."  
"I see..."  
Hime rests her hand on her chin contemplatively.  
Of the room's two other flesh-and-blood occupants, Riza is the first to break the silence.

"So? What is that stuff?"

"I don't know. It's not a recorded substance, neither in the human realm, nor the monster kingdom."

"What? Then how are we going to find out where they took Hir-'

"However..." the princess cuts her off. "It does appear to contain elements found in embalming fluid."

"Ah, then perhaps we should look into that new funeral home?"  
Riza and Hime both stare towards Reiri with slight confusion as she finally chimes into the conversation.

"New funeral home?"  
Hime and Riza both inquire in unision as Reiri pulls out some sort of a pamphlet from her school uniform.

"That's correct. They built it over the old one at Sasanaki Cemetery."  
She opens up the pamphlet and begins looking through it.  
"It has a morgue, a chapel..."

A dreamy, longing expression comes over her face as she turns to the next page.  
"...A coffin display..."  
She ceases to speak as she continues to read through the pamphlet with the look of a child in a candy store.

"Well, what the hell are we waiting for? Let's go over there, kick some ass, and save that moron!"  
Riza quickly turns for the door as Reiri continues to look through the pamphlet.

"Stop."  
She stops as Hime's order interrupts her trip to the door.

"What do you mean stop, we gotta-"

"He has 24 hours of life left. He'll be alright until we get some rest. Besides, we're not even sure if that funeral home is the source of the attack."  
Hime slips by her and makes her way back to her bedroom as Riza stands in place, angry but somehow unable to find a proper rebuttal to make an argument. It was true, after all; he's immortal as long as he's supplied with Hime's blood every three days, so why has she felt so protective of him as of late? He's not just a normal human kid..

Riza runs her hands through her hair and sighs as she walks back towards her quarters, leaving Reiri engrossed in her pamphlet.

'

Hiro opens his eyes as a droning humming noise rouses him from his unconcious state.  
As his eyes adjust to the light, he immediately notices that the ceiling above him is not his own. Rather, this one is white, sterile, and tiled, much like the floor or ceiling of a hospital. Heck, that thought alone brings bad memories; his past couple times at the local hospital were extremely unpleasant.

'_Where am I..?_'

He begins to lift himself from the steel table he's laying on when he notices an unsettling obstacle; all of his limbs are tied to the steel table.

"Wh-what the.."

He looks at his surroundings to the best of his abilities given his current predicament. Lots of tubes, some machinery and jars of chemicals lay around the room. A couple of clear tanks filled with some sort of orange substance are hooked up to some kind of machine that is pumping it through the series of tubes. Hiro's eyes follow the length of the tubing to find that they connect to another corpse, one on the metal table right next to his.

_'I-it's some kind of an embalming room!_'  
This chilling thought is suddenly interrupted as a coarse, stifled laughter permeates the room.  
"Good evening, Boy. I've been waiting for you...'

'_T-that voice... it can't possibly.._'  
He pulls his head forward to look in the direction of the voice. What he sees standing directly in front of him was what he dreaded most; a man in a black suit, standing over 7 feet tall and easily in his seventies: the man from his nightmare.  
Hiro says nothing in response to the man as he struggles against his restraints, desperately trying to escape, but to no avail.

"Now now, Boy, there's no need to fret. I'm sure your friends will be here for you soon."  
The man shows a slight smile, albeit one with sinister intent.

"Who... who are you? A-and how do you know about my friends? What do you want with us?"

"Who I am is not of importance. As for you and your friends, I have been watching you for a while now. The blood from that young mistress of yours is of great interest to me, you see."  
'_Hime.._'

"And as for you and your friends, I'm sure you'll be of great use in eternal servitude to me."  
'_Riza... Reiri..._'

"B-but-"

"That's enough for now, Boy. You will be put to use in good time."  
The Tall Man cuts him off as he makes his way out the door.

"I have to make preparations for some more visitors. I'm certain you will enjoy your stay in the mean time."  
He smiles one last time before slamming the door shut, leaving Hiro in the room with nothing but the sound of that distant humming.

Hiro sighs. Once again he was trapped as bait, emburdening and endangering his friends.  
'_Hime.. Riza.. Reiri... be careful...'_

-End of Chapter 2-


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks for the input so far, guys! Glad to see people are enjoying this.  
And for anybody wondering, don't worry, the other characters get involved in the story pretty soon.

Also, this chapter will probably need a little polishing later on, but it should work for now.

* * *

Chapter 3 -

"Alright, to hell with this crap."

Riza murmurs as she slides off of her bed; she's been in her quarters for about an hour, but she hasn't been able to get a blink of sleep since the abduction. Hell, how can anybody be expected to sleep when a friend has just been kidnapped?

She grumbles as she grabs the keys to her motorcycle from off of her endtable. Hime and Reiri might need their rest, but that sure as hell doesn't mean she's gonna wait on them.  
And besides, those dwarf things seemed to go down easy enough. How much trouble could this possibly be for a warrior like her?

,

"Shit, this place is huge!"

Riza hangs her helmet on the handles of her bike as she looks at the rebuilt mortuary in disbelief. In fact, to say this was 'rebuilt' would be misleading; this place bore no similarities to the cozy little building that used to be there.  
This new mortuary is huge and mansion-like as it stands imposingly over the large cemetery, the moonlight gleaming off of the white pillars that adorn the facade of the grey and white structure.  
Even from the gates of the cemetery, a good distance away from the building, the funeral home still looked massive.

'Christ, this place could even give Hime's mansion a run for it's money...'  
Riza places her now werewolf-form arms on the cemetery gates and pulls backwards, forcefully prying the iron gates open.

As she steps into the cemetery, she notices something that slipped her vision when she was distracted by the sight of the mortuary. Something disturbing.

All accross the massive graveyard, every single grave had been dug up. She cautiously walks through the graveyard and towards the funeral home, stepping along the narrow bits of ground that remain between the dug up graves. There isn't a single grave that isn't empty..

'_So much for the investigation; there's obviously something bad going on here... Hold on, Hiro...'  
_She finally reaches the mahogany double doors of the mortuary.  
This place might be big, but it's still nothing she can't handle. Once again, she morphs her arms into their wolf form and prepares to force the door open.

~_crrreakkkkk~_

The doors open on their own before she can even bring her arms against it.

"What the hell?"  
'_Gah, how _cliche..'

She carefully steps into the mortuary. The entrance hall is tasteful in it's decor, red drapery lining the walls and creating a pleasant contrast with the tan-colored wallpaper and the sleek wooden floor. However, the relaxing aura of the room's color scheme is negated by the assortment of coffins lined up against the wall, leading up to a single door at the opposite end of the hall.

Riza stands still for a moment and listens to her surroundings; There are doors to her left and right, but her attention is firmly drawn to a faint humming sound emanating from someplace behind the far door, at the opposite end of the room.

~_SLAM!~ ~cccachick~_

She quickly spins to face the doors behind her. They've slammed shut and automatically locked.  
'_These guys aren't very subtle, whoever they are...'_  
She can probably bust them open easily, but with no reason to screw around with the doors just yet, she continues into the mortuary.

Her footsteps echo throughout the empty entrance hall as she walks towards towards the door at the opposite end of the the room. Hiro is in here somewhere; she can smell his scent becoming slightly stronger with each step she takes.

She reaches for the doorknob.

'GAH~!"  
She smacks her hands over her ears as something zooms by loudly on the other side of the door.

Rubbing her ears as she regains her bearings, she takes a moment to try and figure out what she just heard. Judging from the sound, it's probably small and airborn, and it's definitely loud as shit... but strangely enough, it didn't sound like anything organic.

'_Whatever it is, I'm gonna stomp the crap out of it when I find it...'_

She grumbles angrily to herself as she finally opens the door and walks into a complete change of scenery. Half a dozen hallways; their walls, floors, and ceiling all carved from a grey-ish white marble, branch out in front of her. Each and every corridor is lined with vertical rows of marble tiles, each one embedded with a copper nameplate.

She's just stepped into the mausoleum.

'_Ugh, it's always someplace filled with dead people..'  
_Riza groaned. With her sense of smell, there was no marble in the world that can hold the stench of that many corpses. But even with the smell of death filling the air, she manages to lock onto Hiro's trail once again as she walks down one of the marble corridors.

~vrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhHHHHRREEE~~

"What the hell!"

She turns around to find a small silver ball about the size of a fist flying towards her at top speed.

Two prong-like blades suddenly protrude from the front of the sphere as it comes within twenty feet of its intended target

"Crap!"

Riza quickly dives onto the ground as the sphere comes within ten feet, causing it to just barely miss her. A few drops of blood splash onto the ground.

She brushes the back of her hand against her cheek, wiping away some of the blood from the thin cut.  
"Damnit.."

~vrrrrrrrHRRRREEEEEEEEE~

She turned around; the ball had done a U-turn and was headed right for her again, blades still at the ready. Immediately, her arms morph into wolf form as she jumps to the side. Just as the ball is about to pass her once again, she smashes it in the back with her pawed fist and sends it careening into the marble floor as little more than a scrap heap.

Riza takes a moment to catch her breath, wiping off more of the blood from her cheek with the backside of her paw. She grins victoriously as she stares at the now-motionless chunk of metal.

"That's for my ears, you piece of-"

~CRASH!~

She turns around swiftly as dozens of marbles tiles explode in a cloud of dust and smoke.

"What is it n-"  
Riza cuts her words short as an entire swarm of flying metal balls emerge from the corridor walls behind her, forming an entire wall of gleaming metallic death. Most of them are silver, but scattered among them are a couple gold and bronze spheres as well. The sound of metallic clicking fills the hall as pronged blades, miniature circular saws, and an assortment of other bite-sized killing devices emerge from the balls in rapid succession.

Riza's eye twitches momentarily in disbelief as she takes a small step backwards.

"Ehh...Heheh...**SHIT.**"  
She spins back towards the direction she was headed and dashes as fast as she can, the whirring and schreeching of a hundred flying death machines echoing loudly throughout the corridors as they follow hot on her tail.

The werewolf warrior hears the sound of a drill right behind her ass as a branch in the corridor comes into sight.

"Grrrr.., come onnn~..."  
She rounds the corner in an instant as she comes to a fork in the hallway, barely missing an unwanted colonoscopy as the drill-wielding sphere smashes into the wall, a few of the other closest ones following suit. The remaining spheres continue to give chase as Riza breaks for the steel door at the end of the hall.

Only a couple feet away, she dives for the door handle.

'_GOT IT!'  
_Riza quickly pulls the door open and scrambles into the room before slamming the steel door behind her. She gasps for breath, the door behind her being riddled with ball-shaped dents until the whirring and clanging of metal finally fades away.

Her chest heaves as she rests herself against the door. Needless to say, she was getting much more than she bargained for.

"R..-Riza? Is that yo-"

"**HIRO!**"  
Hiro is strapped down on a metal table, barely able to move any of his limbs.

Riza says nothing more as she violently rips the straps off of the blood warrior's body.  
"Riza... I'm sorry you had to-"  
His words are cut off as the werewolf warrior pulls him off of the table and hugs him, much to Hiro's surprise.

"R-Riza..?"  
His face is flushed bright pink as Riza pulls him tightly against her, her arms still in wolf form as the squishy paw pads press into his back, and his chest is being pushed into her squishy.. well...

Hiro smiles slightly. He can feel and hear several of his bones snapping violently in her embrace, but it's alright. As a blood warrior, the caring gesture means more to him right now than his skeletal integrity.

-End of Chapter 3-


	4. Chapter 4

Glad to see some more people reading this, glad to see more Riza/Hiro fans out there too. I hope you all enjoy this chapter! And as usual, will probably polish this up a little bit later, but should read well enough for now.

* * *

Chapter 4 -

Hiro drops to the floor, smoke emanating from his joints as Riza finally releases him from her embrace. Her face is flushed a bright pink as she realizes what she may have just revealed.

"Riza..."

Riza blushes even harder as she looks away from Hiro and towards the corner of the room, her face still lit like a pink floursecent lamp. However, within moments she finds her eyes becoming drawn to his once again. She opens her mouth, desperately looking for something to say.

"S-shut up.. I was just worried.."  
What a load of shit. She peers down towards the blood warrior, the healing smoke still billowing from his body as a result of her savage display of affection; Hiro might not be the smartest kid she ever met, but even he can see through her excuse. Looking into his blushing face, she can see feelings of warmth and caring, even amidst his confusion.

Riza smiles just slightly. Maybe, if she looks just a little harder, she'll see the same feelings she holds for him... Hell, when she gets him home, maybe she'll try just that.

Hiro returns a smile of his own as the werewolf warrior's expression softens.  
"Thanks for saving me... Again.."

"Uh, h-hey, Hiro.."  
Riza stammers just slightly as she runs her hand against the back of her head.

"Huh?"

No, no, no. This is no time for things like that. They need to get out of this weird-ass funeral home.  
"N-nevermind! I'll ask you later. In the meantime, we need to get out of this hole."

"R-right!"  
Hiro nods firmly; he's curious to what she wanted to ask him, but getting out of this place is definitely the top priority right now.

The warrior and the servant thoroughly scan the embalming room, scouring every inch and turning over every object in search of an alternate exit. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a dead-end room; the only way out is the door Riza came through. The one with all the ball-shaped dents in it...

Hiro takes a deep breath as he walks towards the door. It wasn't in such bad shape until something chased Riza straight into the room... Whatever it is, it might still be out there.  
He gulps silently, and grabs the door handle anyways.

"Wait, you dumbass!"  
Riza shouts at him as she catches him grasping the door handle.

"There's a whole ton of these fist-sized metal ball things flying around out there, and they got all kinds of sharp things poking out of them. Not to mention, they're really god damn fast! Semi-immortal or not, there's no telling what will happen to you if your body is cut into a hundred pieces!"

Her voice is teeming with anger as she scolds him for his apparent carelessness, but there is evident concern in her tone as well.

"Hey, Riza.. Did you come here by yourself?"

The wolf-blooded girl is taken slightly aback as the blood warrior immediately follows her rant with a question.

"Uh, well, yeah.. Why?"

"Then let me be the first to open the door. It's the only way out, and it's the least I can do after you put yourself through all this trouble..."

Her face begins to glow slightly pink again.

"But-!"

~_CLAKCHLICHANGCHICHANG!_~

She is suddenly cut off by the clanging of metal against the floor, a whole pile of broken metal spheres rolling into the room as Hiro opens the door.

Riza cautiously walks up behind him and grabs his arm.  
"You moron.."  
She whispers as she looks through the door. There were way more of these spheres chasing her than present in the pile against the door, so there must be more of them buzzing around somewhere. She turns to face Hiro again.  
"There's probably more of those things scouring this place, we gotta make a break for the exit."

"Riza.. I forgot to tell you, there's something else here besides-"  
His sentence is cut off before he can even begin to elaborate.

"Shut the hell up and follow me. LET'S GO!"  
Riza grips his arm tightly as they run through the marble maze of funeral plaques once again. She cringes as she follows the scent of corpses that she recognizes from her trip to the embalming room, aggresively dragging Hiro by the arm until they finally reach the door back to the entrance hall.

She pulls back her free arm as it morphs into its wolf form. This'll be a piece of cake.

She swings her arm back down onto the door.

~_bonk_~

"What the hell!"

She winces in pain. The door is made of freaking wood, and not only did it not budge to her werewolf arm, but it friggin hurts too!

"Riza, are you alright?.."

"Shut up, I'm fine.."  
"We'll just have to find another way-"

~vrrrrrrrHRRRREEEEEEEEE~

That noise...  
"Ah shit, not again"

Riza looked to the right of the door; a whole wall of those metal balls were hovering in place, waiting for them to make their move.

"Riza, are those.."

"**YES**! Come on, this way!"

The werewolf warrior grabs Hiro's arm once again and begins to pull him in the other direction. Unfortunately, they are blocked by another, different obstacle.

"_**BOYYYYYYY~**_"  
The coarse voice reverberates through the entire building as the figure turns the corner.

"Oh no..."  
Hiro grasps onto Riza's arm tightly as the voice penetrates his senses. Her cheeks flash pink as the boy holds onto her arm tightly.

"H-Hiro, what the hell are you-"

~_CLOP, CLOP, CLOP, CLOP_~

The clops of shoes against the marble floor echoes throughout as the Tall Man walks slowly down the hall, the lights of the mausoleum casting his shadow imposingly down the corridor as he closes in on the two guests.

Riza blinks in confusion as the tall, suited senior in the black suit draws nearer.  
"Who the hell is this old guy?"

"I-I was trying to tell you.. I.. I think this is the guy running this place..."

Riza clenches her fist as she hears those words. This is the guy who kidnapped Hiro, set those metal spheres on her ass, and screwed up the kitchen... Son of a bitch must pay.

She crosses her arms as they transforms into their stronger, fluffier counterparts:

"I am Riza Wildman, daughter of the great warrior Volg Wildman!"

Her brows furrows in rage as she uncrosses her arms, her legs shifting in an appropriate position for battle.  
"And I am going to kick the _shit_out of you!"

The Tall Man's hardened features curls into the slightest of smiles.  
"Hello, Miss..."

Riza's eye twitches. This guy thinks he can talk to her like that?  
Rage overcomes reason as she charges the man, one arm bent in front of her as she raises her fist into the air with her other.  
Without a moment of hesitation, she thrusts her fist against the main with all her might  
"**DON'T LOOK DOWN ON ME, YOU BASTAR-**"

"**RIZA, WAIT!**"  
Hiro shouts after her as she takes her swing at the building's owner.

Her fist never collides with her intended target.

"What the hell!"

The Tall Man is holding her paw firmly in his grasp. Riza growls; she's not going to take this kind of crap! Enraged, she thrusts her free arm towards the figure's stomach.

This time, her fist succeeds in colliding with the man's body; however, he barely even flinches from the impact. Instead, he grabs her remaining free arm before she can pull back for another strike. Now both of her fists are in the suited man's grasp.

This... This guy is strong as hell!  
"Y-You asshole!"

The man lets out a coarse snicker, his bemused facial expression still in place as he takes the opportunity to finish his sentence.

"...And _goodbye_!"

"Wha-"  
Riza begins to stammer angrily, but she is cut short when the Tall Man tosses her accross the hall by both arms. She flies through the air for a mere moment before crashing down into the marble floor, cracking the hard surface beneath her and knocking her cold.

Hiro dashes over to her unconscious body as The Tall Man's coarse laughter echoes throughout the hallway;

"**RIZA!**"

'

The fancy antique car pulls up outside the bent cemetery gates, its sleek black surface gleaming in the moonlight as its doors open. Hime steps out of the vehicle, a chainsaw and a double-barrel shotgun clenched in each fist.

Flandre slides out of the front passenger seat with a bag of other weapons and utilities. Finally, bats fly out of the car's open window and reform into Reiri.

"Princess, it would have been nice if you had remembered to open the backseat door for me.."  
Reiri huffs, slightly annoyed as she crosses her arms.

Hime says nothing in response, and instead simply stares towards the funeral home in the distance. Riza had left her a note explaining where she had gone, but there's no telling how long she had been gone. Seeing as her motorcycle is leaning against a segment of the iron fence, it's quite obvious that she is in the vicinity, most likely searching inside of the building.

Whatever the situation may be, it is her responsibility as a member of the Royal Family to ensure the well-being of her subordinates.

"Reiri. Flandre. Let's go."

-End of Chapter 4-


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry for the wait, had a bunch of other things going on, and had to figure out how I was going to balance this out with Hime and Reiri in the mix.  
Glad to see people are still reading, too. Will probably do some more Princess Resurrection stories after this one's finished (which I'm hoping to do on the next chapter). With RizaxHiro and a moderate dose of asskicking, of course.

* * *

Chapter 5 -

Hiro opens his eyes. He's strapped down on a metal table once again, in the same room as before; the embalming room...

He sighs as he looks over to his side; the anonymous corpse that was laying on the table next to his is gone, and now Riza is laying in its place.

Regret races through his mind as he stares at his friend laying on that metal table. She had come all the way out here on her own, just to save him... And now here she is, knocked out cold and tied to a metal table, all prepared to share the same fate as his.

Tears run down his cheeks. After all this crap she went through, after all the crap he put her through, it's going to end like this?  
The flow of tears come to a sudden halt as he realizes he has something in his pants pocket, right next to where his hand is strapped down. Now he remembers; after he had helped Riza scour the room for an alternate exit, he remembered to grab a scalpel from the surgical equipment on the counter..

He leans up for a moment to look ahead of him and get some bearings; the steel door to the embalming room is closed, the surface still covered with spherical dents from before. However, it's being guarded by two of the same dwarf creatures that had kidnapped him before. He looks over towards Riza; some humanoid creature with most of it's flesh rotted away is sticking a needle into her, a needle that is connected to a tube, which is connected to...

Hiro quickly begins to fight the restraints on his right hand as he puts two and two together. The shambling corpse pulls the empty tank off of the the embalming machine and walks to the other end of the room to grab a fresh tank of that orange substance.. That thing is going to refill the pumping machine and fill her with that stuff!

He can't let that happen.. He struggles with all his might as the walking corpse makes its' way back towards the machine with a full tank of that stuff, stretching out the restraint as much as he can to grab the one thing that can even possibly save them..

He quickly eases the scalpel out of his pocket and begins to cut through the restraint as the zombie places the tank onto the machine, oblivious to Hiro's escape attempt. The two dwarfs, on the other hand, quickly go on alert and rush over to him with ghastly shrieks.

With a snap, he frees the restraint over his right hand and takes a panicked swing at one of the dwarf creatures as it rushes to the side of his table. A cascade of orange fluid splatters against the white-tiled wall as the monster falls backwards, its' claws clutching its slashed neck.

The other dwarf creature reaches the opposite side of his table and grabs his still-restrained arm, shaking both Hiro and the table with violent force as it digs its claws into his skin. Yelping out in pain, he barely manages to stab the creature's eye with his free arm The white walls once again get another orange paintjob as the fluid spews out from its' busted eye.

He undoes the other hand restraint with the scalpel as the zombie finally takes notice. The walking corpse opens its' mouth in protest as it shambles away from the refilled embalming machine and towards Hiro. The blood warrior quickly undoes the last of his restraints with the orange-splattered scalpel, and hops off of the metal table. Thinking quickly, he wheels the metal table towards the shambling corpse and thrusts it forward, knocking Riza's table askew as it smashes into the ghoul's chest and sends it careening back towards the embalming machine.  
The walking corpse smashes into the embalming machine, smashing it into pieces and dislodging the tank of fluid as it topples over onto the creature's head. It smashes open violently, the impact knocking the undead creature out of commission as the orange substance floods all over its' body.

Hiro staggers backwards, his chest heaving fast and his clothes splattered orange. He rests against one of the counters, the messy scalpel slipping from his fingers and clanging against the floor as he catches his breath..

As the adrenaline rush finally dies out, Hiro's breathing finally calms and his thoughts become clear.

"I-... I..."

He won; in this room anyways.. All the creatures were dead, or at least out-of-service. He staggers over to Riza and pulls the embalming needle out from her arm, and with a weak smile, finally cuts her free from the restraints.

"Riza... Riza!"

He tries shaking her arms, her shoulders, even wheeling the entire table back and forth. But to no avail; she still doesn't wake up.

"RIZA!"  
In a desperate panic, he finally pulls her off of the embalming table with all the strength he can muster. Did they do something to her while he was out cold? Did... did they kill her?!

"**RIZA!** **PLEASE WAKE UP!**"

He crawls over to her side and places both his hands on her stomach, applying and withdrawing pressure in an attempt to revive her, but it's no good.

Finally, he takes a deep breath. They taught him this stuff in school, and it always seemed to work in the movies. Taking in all the breath he can he opens his mouth and brings his face to hers... ...When a fluffy, clawed paw grabs his collar.

"R-Riza!"

Her eyes open and stare back into his, albeit tired and sleepily.

Hiro gulps as he stares into her face, the look in her eyes showing that she's reached a conclusion from all this; And probably the wrong one, at that.

Her gaze snaps back onto his as she sits up, a somewhat unhappy expression on her face.

"Damnit, Hiro, not now!"

"Wha...H-huh? Not... not wha?"

He stammers confusedly, completely clueless as to what Riza is referring to.

Her displeased expression turns into a playful grin as she slaps her hand down on his shoulder.

"Save that for later, eh?"

She winks at him as she hops onto her feet.

"H-huh?!"

His face is flushed a beet red.

"B-But.. I... What do you... Huh!?"

Riza looks back at him as she pulls the steel door off of its hinges, not even paying any mind to the three bodies littering the room.

"Stop stammering like a moron and get a move on, would you? I'm gonna kick the crap out of that tall bastard, then we're gonna get the hell out of here! "

Riza's paw grips Hiro's arm and pulls him out of the room, not even giving him the chance to reply.

'

Reiri sighs as the sound of the chainsaw motor dies to a halt.

"Hime-sama... We could have at least _tried_ to open the door like civilized beings..."

Hime doesn't even bother with a response as she treads over the shredded remains of the mahogany entrance doors, and into the entrance hall of the funeral parlor. Attempting to open the door manually would have been a waste of time, and if her suspicions are correct, they don't have time to waste.

"Uhm, Hime..."

The princess of monsters turns around to face her vampire companion, who is still standing expectantly on the other side of the doorway.

"Oh, right."

Hime bows and performs a welcoming gesture, inviting Reiri inside.

"Thank you, mistress.."

Reiri bows in return and carefully steps over the sharp, wooden remains of the mahogany door. She sighs; it's a good thing the owner of the building doesn't have to be the one to invite her in.

The Princess stands in her place as she observes her surroundings, her chainsaw still grasped in her left hand and the double-barrel shotgun slung over her shoulder. The 'opened' door leads into a a nicely decorated entrance hall, a rectangular room lined with ornate lamps and red curtains; of course, all this fine decoration only serves to draw attention to the ornate, yet morbid display of coffins.

"They really are quite nice.."  
Hime's train of thought is interrupted as her vampire companion speaks up.

The Princess shakes her head as she watches Reiri gazes at the display of coffins.

"I see.. But there's no time for you to be shopping, I'm afraid; we need to find our companions and then we need to take our leave from this place."

"But Princess, shouldn't we take care of whatever is lurking in this place? That is, assuming something sinister is actually happening here."  
"After all, Flandre is carrying everything we should need to-"

"Right... About that..."

Hime cuts her off, gesturing to the scene behind her; Flandre is standing completely still by the door, her eyes unlit and her shoulders slumped as the massive sack of supplies remains within her grasp.

"I... I seem to have miscalculated how much energy carrying the supplies would drain from her power cell..."  
Whilst her face remains stern as always, any trained ear could hear the slight hint of embarrassment in her voice. Reiri holds back her urge to chuckle at one of the few tactical blunders she's ever seen the Princess make.

Hime sighs quietly and continues.

"We're simply going to have to choose our supplies wisely, it would seem.."

~hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm~

A sound of a low, continuous hum catches Hime's attention as the awkward silence fills the air. Both eager to distract from her mistake, as well as curious to the origin of the noise, she wastes no time in pointing out her observation.

"Reiri. Do you hear that?"

Reiri perks up as she pulls away from her 'window shopping' once again.

"Hrm?"

She remains silent for a moment. She can hear some sort of faint mechanical drone humming constantly from somewhere within the building. However, she can't quite pinpoint the origin of the noise..

"Ah, yes. That humming sound?"

Hime nods as she walks over to the unpowered Flandre and opens the bag of supplies.

"Yes, I hear it. It sounds like some sort of machinery, but nothing I've heard before.. It's coming from somewhere in the building, but we'll have to venture further inside before I can give you an accurate location."

The Princess pulls out a container of acid and a box of extra shotgun shells. Reaching into her dress and under her bra, she pulls out a folded leather bag.

Reiri watches her as she leans next to the door on the far-side of the room, wiping the slightest bit of drool from the side of her mouth as Hime carefully places four shotgun shells in each cup of her bra. She adjusts her chest, making sure all eight shells are secure before placing the container of acid and the rest of the ammo into the black leather bag.

"Reiri."  
The vampire snaps back into reality as Hime calls out her name.

"..Huh? Oh, right! Are you ready?"

The princess nods as her gloved hand reaches for the doorknob

"Uhm, Hime-sama, don't you think it's sort of strange that nothing's attacked us yet? ...And what's with the acid?"

"If there's something here, they might just be waiting for us.. As for the acid, well.. It's just a hunch, really."

"Oh, and there's drool on your chin"

Reiri hastily wipes her face as Hime turns the doorknob, opening the door with a slow creak.

On the other side of the door stands a large group of creatures; zombies, dwarves, and some sort of floating silver balls.

The Princess draws both of her weapons as Reiri draws rows of throwing knives from within her outfit.

Hime sighs as she cocks her double-barrel shotgun.

"Well, so much for a free ride.."

-End of Chapter 5-


	6. Chapter 6

Ever have that feeling when you're about to finish a story, and realize you forgot a ton of necessary exposition? Well, that's what kinda happened here.  
So yeah, I guess this isn't the final chapter after all. Hopefully I'll be able to make a finale out of the next chapter.

Also, thanks to kyuubikid123 for keeping me reminded to work on this; putting aside time to write can easily get lost in the confusion of all the stuff I do.

* * *

Chapter 6 -

~_CRASH!_~  
The sound of two people crashing against eachother echoes throughout the cold marble halls.

"Oofh!"  
"Gah! What the hell!?"

Both the werewolf warrior and the obstructing person fall ass-first onto the ground.

"Reiri!? What the hell are you doing here!?"

Riza quickly pushes herself up onto her feet, still anrgily rubbing her head from the impact as Reiri hops up from the floor and straightens out her school uniform, despite the fact that it's already been tattered and splashed with the now-familiar orange substance.

"Well,.." Reiri presses a finger against her chin as begins to speak, "..After a nasty encounter with a band of creatures, I decided to do a quick scout of the area around for our Princess; which I was in the process of doing when I suddenly collided with a loud, hairy beast.."

A teasing smirk washes across the young vampire's features as she pauses for a split second, raising a finger beneath her lip whilst Riza's face flushes red with anger.

"Oh my, that was you, wasn't it?"

"You bitch! If I wasn't too busy rescuing-", She pauses midsentence as her angered features soften with sudden confusion. "...Hey, where did he go?"

Reiri silently points to the corridor where Riza had emerged;

Several yards back, Hiro lays crumpled on ground, completely unconscious as smoke emanates from every pore in his body.

"Ah, shit."

The werewolf warrior scratches the back of her head with embarrassment; She had been pulling Hiro by the arm when she dashed out into the halls, hellbent on finding and defeating the tall bastard running this craphole. Somewhere along the line, she must have forgotten that Hiro was still in her grip; there are massive cracks all along the marble floor, leading right up to her current position.

"Oh dear, it looks like he quite a bumpy ride." Reiri calmly remarks as she tries to wipe more orange monster blood off of her skirt. "I suppose that explains why he didn't come running for Hime during our encounter with some of the tenants."

"Grrah.."

Riza growls at the vampire's thinly-veiled criticism. As much as it pained her to say it, Reiri was right; being so reckless with Hime's only blood warrior could have put both the Princess and Hiro in great danger.

She looks back towards Reiri as she pulls the broken blood warrior onto her shoulder and approaches the young vampire. She looks at the boy on her shoulders with worry in her eyes; not just for Hime's sake, but his as well.

"Hime... Is she alright?"

"I'm fine."

The princess herself steps around the corner, wiping away the now-familiar orange stains from her attire with a crimson-red handkerchief. Needless to say, she seems less than pleased with the current situation.

"Whew.."  
The werewolf girl wipes her brow with her free hand. She just dodged a couple of bullets: nobody's been killed or seriously hurt after following her lone charge into action.

"Don't get too relaxed, Riza" the princess interrupts, her voice both stern and quiet.

Riza peers down at the marble floor; even though everyone is still among the living, she can't help but still feel somewhat guilty for acting so impulsively.  
"Look, Hime, I'm sorry. I shouldn't hav-"

"It doesn't matter." Hime quietly interrupts the werewolf warrior before she can even finish her apology.  
"Whether we're in here or back in the mansion, we're still in great danger."

"Huh? What do you mean!? Now that we're all together, we can go in, kick this guy's ass, and hightail it out of here."

The princess softly shakes her head and turns towards Reiri, allowing her to intervene.  
"After looking through the scene in the kitchen, the Princess sent me to do a flyby of the mortuary. Didn't you notice that all the graves had been dug up?"

Riza scratches the back of her head once again.  
"Well, yeah! But I just figured that was even more reason to investigate and get Hiro out of there before things get even weirder..."

The young vampire rolls her eyes.  
"I decided to take a look at the plaque on the cemetery's gatepost and couldn't help but notice something strange in the engraving; "Morningside Cemetery; Oakland, CA. c. 1825"

"Morningside..? California? 1825?!"  
Riza stammered, not sure what to draw from any of this information.  
"That doesn't make any sense! You said they just built this place after Sasanaki Funeral Home got blown sky-high! It can't be that old!"

Reiri crosses her arms as the werewolf girl butts into her exposition. Following Riza's outburst, the vampire continues to explain her hypothesis.  
"Has it even occurred to you that this building might not even be of human construction?"

The werewolf pauses, pondering the idea as Hime finally breaks her silence.  
"...Did anybody even see this place being built?"

"Well.." Reiri pauses momentarily, running a hand across her cheek sheepishly.  
"I'm not quite sure yet, but I may have jumped to conclusions when I presumed this building was simply constructed in place of the old funeral home. I can't say I ever noticed any signs of construction..."

The redheaded wolf girl blinks.

"So what? It just popped outta thin air?"

"Most likely." Hime responds. "It wouldn't be the first time something like this happened."

Riza takes pause for yet another moment, then continues

"Yeah, that's right. But still, there's something different about this place..."

The princess raises an eyebrow questioningly.

"Anything in particular?"

The werewolf girl rubs her knuckles against her leg, still feeling a bit of the leftover sting from her earlier escape attempt..

"Well, after I found Hiro, I tried to break out the way I came in. It looked like a normal wooden door, but it wouldn't even crack!"

Hime rests her hand lightly against her chin, contemplating and analyzing the given information.  
"That's strange;we were able to break open the door into the building, and the door into the mausoleum seemed to open easily enough, even though we were greeted by a rather unpleasant welcoming committee on the other side.

Reiri raises a finger quickly as she chimes in with an extension of her theory.  
"Well, perhaps this building is a composite of both otherwordly and earth-based materials. The building's facade and interior design may be of natural material, but the inner framework and infrastructure may be something we've never seen before."

"Did you guys try opening the door again?"

Riza scratches her head, peering towards the unconscious boy on her shoulders as she ponders the words of her vampire acquaintance.

Hime shakes her head.  
"No, but based on the information we have, it would be in our best interests to stamp out the problem here before we consider an escape."

The werewolf's face darkens with anger, her free hand rolling tightly into a fist.  
"That's right! I still got a bone to pick here!

The monster princess blinks at her tenant's sudden change of tone.  
"Hrm? Is there something you've forgotten to tell us?"

"Oh!"  
Riza's angry demeanor is suddenly broken by embarrassment as she realizes an important detail she missed.

"Yeah, there's this really tall guy wearing a suit. He looks pretty old; he's balding and he has grey-white hair towards the back of his head. He even has it combed backwards all fancy-like, the creepy bastard."

She scratches the back of her head, still unhappy about her defeat at the hands of the Tall Man.

After pausing for only a moment, the werewolf girl continues, speaking a bit more quietly.  
"He's also really damn strong. Blocked both of my attacks and tossed me across the hall..."

Reiri holds back a snide comment as Hime considers the information Riza just gave her.

Finally, the princess speaks up once more.  
"I see.. At any rate, we still need answers, and I believe finding the source of that droning noise would be the best bet to finding them, along with this Tall Man."

"Oh!"

Reiri snaps her fingers.

"I believe I might have found the source of that sound when I scouted ahead earlier. Just follow my lead!"

The vampire lifts into the air and begins zooming back towards the turn at the end of the hall. The princess wordlessly breaks into a sprint as she follows her down the hall.

"Hey! Wait up, damnit!"

Riza tightens her grip on Hiro, keeping him secure over her shoulder before finally dashing off in pursuit of her companions.

-End of Chapter 6-


End file.
